34 Estranged - Part 5

I passed out in the club room after gym class.

The sound of the heavy rainfall outside made it surprisingly easy for me. There's just something about a rainy day that makes me even more drowsy than usual. The cool air conditioning of our clubroom also seemed to do wonders. It might be fall now, but even when it's raining the lingering humidity of summer is something not to be trifled with.

In any case, after that round of dodge-ball I managed to speak to our gym teacher. Once I vaguely let him know that I wasn't feeling too well, he quickly resigned to have me sit gym out for the rest of the period.

I couldn't have been asleep for less than four hours. I feel like a completely different person right now.

I must say though, it's been surprisingly easy to skip. Do the other teachers just not care that I'm missing so many classes? The school day is almost over.

"…"

Once the initial drowsiness wears off, I can feel myself slowly lose the will to do anything. Lunch break is just about over and I only have two classes left, but I can't be bothered to attend either of them.

I mean, what's the point?

I'll just feel ridiculed and isolated by everyone else. Plus, with how today's been going, it's only a matter of time until people start to become physical with me. I might be able to avoid them during class, but that doesn't matter if I'm cornered in a hallway or the washroom. At that point I'd be ripe for all kinds of bullying.

Which means that I'm better off killing time here until Sig and Nick get here after class.

But, just what is there to do in here?

Yesterday I had Momo to keep me company, but hanging out in here alone is just dull.

"I suppose I could look through the equipment, at least."

I stand up and head towards one of the desks at the side of the club room.

Though I say equipment, it's mostly just game materials and other objects needed for our club activities. These are all club activities that usually involve games or fiction of some kind. For example…

I open a box at the center of the desk that contains all of our Dungeons and Dragons materials including boards, dice, maps, guides, miniatures, and character sheets.

We've only ran about five sessions-worth of our campaign so far, but it's been a fun ride despite how little I know about the game.

From what I've played so far, D\u0026D is essentially all roleplay. We're pretty much free to do as we please, but the success and failure of our actions are determined by what we roll on the dice. Our stats points are called "roll modifiers" which generally boost or hinder our rolls depending on how strong or weak we are in each area of specialty. The five general stats are Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.

However, while we're free to do as we please, the story and NPCs are controlled by a player known as the Dungeon Master, or DM for short. That role was taken on by the president of the SF club, Chris Frederick.

For someone who acts so lax and nonchalant in every day conversation, when he gets into DM mode it's hard to not get immersed in his story telling. His delivery of the narration is powerful and his characters always feel so real. His stories so far have been immersive enough to compel even someone as apathetic as myself to get invested.

All of those good points made leaving sessions early to get to work feel more terrible than usual, though. I wish I could stay for longer and just enjoy it with everyone else.

I move my hands through the box and pick up the character sheets.

These sheets contain information on the characters we've created for the campaign. The games typically focus on our roleplay characters as they form a party in order to live out the life of adventurers in the DM's created world filled with, well, dungeons and dragons.

Going through the papers, it appears that the top sheet is Nick's.

Let's see here…

His character is a level 4 Half-Elven Wizard simply referred to as the "Enigma of Darkness", or ED for short.

His weird name aside, his gameplay is honestly awe-inspiring, even for someone as new as me. His wizard focuses entirely on illusion-based magic and using it to confuse and bewilder opponents so that the rest of us can focus on taking them out. Not only that, but with his high Charisma modifier, he's able to deceive a decent amount of people using not only his cunning illusions but his words as well. It's a build that requires a lot of imagination, and even a seasoned player like Chris has nothing but the utmost respect for him for pulling it off so consistently.

That said, his character is a bit, uh… full of himself.

He has an evil laugh to accompany any successful ruse, and he makes sure to let everyone know that he is the all-mighty "Enigma of Darkness, ender of worlds and taker of souls". I've heard it so much that at this point I kinda have to hold myself back from giggling or I might embarrass him a little.

Okay, let's see the next sheet.

Ah, this one belongs to Chris' girlfriend.

Reyna Fernandez.

She has a bit of a reputation at our school as the weird girl that everyone's friends with. English isn't her first language so she can be a bit crude or direct when she speaks, but that endearing trait is a part of why everyone loves her and why she's so effortlessly popular. In D\u0026D sessions, that crude way of speaking can sometimes surface in some amusing ways.

Let's see… Her character is a level 3 Elven Ranger named "Cardi B".

I'm guessing she didn't feel like coming up with a name for herself and drew her inspiration from somewhere else. Either way, judging by what she's written here, her character was originally supposed to be a confident, calm and rational girl who acted as the foundation for Nick and Sig's crazy antics.

In reality though, much like her namesake, Cardi B ended up as somewhat of a "ratchet" character.

Her crude manner of speaking would constantly throw NPC's for a loop and she tended to be very flirtatious with them since they were all being roleplayed by her boyfriend. This lead to Nick's, uhm, more radical personality to surface, which in turn lead to him and Sig playing pranks and leaving Reyna behind whenever possible.

I remember vividly this one time when we were being questioned by a city guardsman about the dead body of a merchant we'd found while entering his shop. Nick was determined to weasel his way out of being framed for murder with his usual illusionary deception, but Reyna managed to seduce our way out of it with no trouble. Frustrated at having been robbed of a chance at using his character's skills, Nick decided to break up their flirting and pin the man's death on Reyna. What unfolded afterwards was a messy confrontation between the two that resulted in the entire building bursting into flames.

"Haha, never a dull moment with them huh?"

More than the enemies in the story, it felt like it was always Nick and Sig against Reyna whenever we played D\u0026D. Things never ended too badly for her though, I guess dating the god of the board does come with its perks. It's not like this was her first campaign either so she knew how to handle herself well enough.

Hmm, the next sheet is…

Ah right, Sigs.

He's a level 4 Dragonborn Barbarian called "Kazugaya".

His character's playstyle was relatively straight forward. He dual-wields swords and uses the Barbarians unique abilities to bruise through battlefields without a hint of fear. While that might sound vanilla even by my standards, his character's uniqueness lay within how Japanese it ended up being. The amount of small details he stuffed into Kazugaya's character personality to make him as Samurai-like as possible was worth a bit of commendation. For example, his character was almost abnormally disciplined and loyal. Much like the typical samurai, Kazugaya values both his own and his comrades' honor above anything else, and would rather die than abandon it.

Which is why if Nicks character, the "Enigma of Darkness" convinced him using his high charisma that Cardi B would betray the party, he would act with every fiber of his being to bring her to justice.

Another thing worth noting is that usually, when Sig speaks in bouts of Japanese in every day conversation, it's relatively easy for him to get on your nerves even after the first word. However for his character, it makes complete sense, and even adds a certain level of immersion to the roleplay.

"…"

My face widens into a smile.

And lastly, is my character.

I'm a bit behind on levels since I've had to leave early more than a few times, but I don't seem to be too far behind Reyna at least.

My character is the level 2 Human Bard, Jacob Death.

For reference, Nick was the one who helped me decide on his last name, which is why it's kind of dark.

He also helped me with most of the hard stuff like the modifiers, the items, the language choices and the special abilities, or "features" as they're called in the game. It took us a while to get it all done since I was completely new to the game, but overall I'd say he did a good job of helping me.

Sig however, helped me out when picking my class.

Apparently, the Bard class suited me? I don't really get it, but he said that Bards are typically the jokers of the party who are good at raising morale by making everyone laugh. I mean, he even told me to make my character a jokester who tells bad puns whenever something serious happens. I don't really see myself as much of a clown though, so I rejected the idea completely. If anything, they're the ones who're busy clowning around every time we play.

Seriously, I'm so interested in Chris' story and yet they always get sidetracked by such silly stuff. They'll get into random tavern fights, or Sig will go off fishing alone for no reason other than to 'meditate' or to 'seek tranquility', or Reyna will try sleeping with one of the bad guys in the middle of a climatic fight, or Nick will use illusion magic to steal coins from some poor priest just to fill his pockets…

Haha, honestly…

What a bunch of idiots.

…

I feel tears dripping down my face.

Dammit, not now…

I wipe my face, but they won't stop.

They drop off of my chin and down onto my character sheet.

"Shit…"

Before it gets any worse, I slip them back into the box and then slump to the ground.

It's barely been a month since I've met them and I'm already feeling this nostalgic.

It's been a while since something's hit me like this.

The fact that I could break down so easily just makes me hate the way things are right now.

I don't like being cornered like this.

By this school, by my circumstances, or anything else.

And you guys were always a good escape from that.

Even if I didn't understand most of what you were saying, the way you passionately engaged one another over your hobbies was never boring.

The others kids may have found it annoying, but from where I stood, it always looked like you guys were having the time of your lives.

How I only wish I had the money and time to join you guys in that magical world.

But even if I can't, it's fine.

Being able to spend even a little bit of time with you two is fine.

Which is why I'll do everything in my power to save our bond today.

"Nick, Sig."

"I swear that I'll make you guys believe in me again."

The 'Fated Ones' will never fall apart.

I'll keep this thing going from now until my last breath.